Ding Dong, Kong is Gone.

Cary Hardy·video·18m 28s·analyzed·Oct 7, 2025

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.025

TL;DR

Cary sells King Kong, criticizes Stern LEs, previews Expo homebrew and figurines.

Summary

Cary Hardy discusses his decision to sell King Kong due to lack of enjoyment despite the game being technically sound, criticizes Stern's LE pricing and market saturation strategy, previews upcoming Pinball Expo attractions including homebrew Big Trouble in Little China, and introduces Pinball Legends collectible figurines from Planetary Pinball with hand-sculpted designs by Leor.

Key Claims

King Kong took a $3,500 hit in resale value, with weak secondary market demand
high confidence · Cary Hardy discussing his personal sale experience with King Kong LE
Fall of the Empire is a middle-of-the-road, accessible game designed for broad audience appeal rather than enthusiasm
high confidence · Cary Hardy's personal assessment after viewing gameplay footage
The Walking Dead Remastered is releasing next week with potential teaser by end of week
medium confidence · Cary Hardy stating 'the game is set to release next week' and mentions teaser timing without NDA confirmation
Stern LE machines are oversaturating the market and not holding value
high confidence · Cary Hardy's repeated statements about LE market saturation and poor resale value
Spooky's next game will launch at $10,000 with significantly more content than Stern's offerings at higher price points
medium confidence · Cary Hardy predicting Spooky will undercut Stern on value proposition; framed as prediction rather than confirmed fact
Pinball Legends figurines are 1/6 scale (500 unit limit, 10-12 inches tall) or 1/12 scale (unlimited)
high confidence · Cary Hardy providing specific product specifications for limited figurine editions
Mud Flaps homebrew Big Trouble in Little China was announced this week and will be playable at Pinball Expo
high confidence · Cary Hardy stating 'This was announced this week' with game confirmed for Expo attendance
Spooky will reveal their next title before end of year according to their schedule
medium confidence · Cary Hardy states 'definitely you should see their next game before the end of the year. That's a given'

Notable Quotes

“I will not be buying a Stern LE again. No more. Changes need to be made Stern on your LE. You are oversaturating the market.”
Cary Hardy @ ~7:30 — Direct criticism of Stern's LE strategy with personal financial commitment to avoid future purchases
“If I don't want to play a pinball machine, that speaks subconsciously about the game and how I feel about it.”
Cary Hardy @ ~2:45 — Core philosophy explaining King Kong's poor retention despite technical soundness
“It's going to be interesting. I cannot wait to see the reactions from people on this [Spooky's next game].”
Cary Hardy @ ~9:00 — Expectation that Spooky's value proposition will meaningfully shift community perception of Stern pricing
“The game shoots great. When you make your shots, that game is butter smooth. A lot that I like about it, but there's also a lot that I kind of don't really like about it after a while.”
Cary Hardy @ ~3:15 — Nuanced critique acknowledging King Kong's strengths while explaining broader disengagement
“Fall of the Empire is it's a middle of the road meh kind of game... it's fine. Not horrible, nothing amazing, but it's a game that's going to speak to a broad audience.”
Cary Hardy @ ~0:50 — Dismissive assessment of Star Wars game framed as intentional design choice for accessibility

Entities

King Konggame Fall of the Empiregame The Walking Dead Remasteredgame Cary HardypersonStern PinballcompanyPinball LegendsproductPlanetary Pinballcompany

Signals

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competitive_signal: Spooky Pinball positioned to significantly undercut Stern's value proposition with $10,000 game offering superior content/features compared to Stern's $13,000+ machines
medium · Cary predicts Spooky's next release will make customers question where their money goes with Stern pricing, framing it as high-impact value comparison
?
design_philosophy: Fall of the Empire designed as accessible, broad-appeal game prioritizing asset utilization and approachability over innovation or deep engagement
high · Cary notes Stern gave 'all the assets for the movies,' 'sufficient' art, and accessible layout designed to appeal broadly rather than enthusiasts
?
event_signal: Pinball Expo homebrew section expected to be busiest area with major attractions including newly-announced Big Trouble in Little China and established homebrew creators
high · Cary predicts homebrew section 'probably going to be one of the busier areas' and specifically highlights Turner Pinball's Merlin's Arcade and Mud Flaps' BTILC
$
market_signal: King Kong secondary market weakness indicates broader demand problem for Stern's recent releases; difficult to move even through dealer channels
high · Cary unable to find direct buyers, had to work with DRO who 'probably could have made more money' but understood current market conditions
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market_signal: Stern LE machines experiencing significant secondary market depreciation ($3,500+ losses on King Kong) with weak demand from dealers and collectors
high · Cary reports taking major hit on resale, difficulty finding buyers, and market-wide reluctance to purchase Stern LEs

Transcript

youtube_auto_sub · $0.000

0:01

All right, I've got a number of topics to discuss and uh I guess we'll get one of those out of the way. I've already recorded a good probably half hour of stuff in regards to this game as well as a number of things about Stern Pinball that I'm going to put behind the paid wall. It's a lengthy, long- winded just this is how I feel and what's going on and what I'm hearing behind the scenes for $9,999. Yeah, it's not a drop in the bucket or anything. Still, it's still a good amount up there, but 10K for what they're putting in this game, the art, how they're implementing the theme, what all is underneath the glass, it's going to make you go, why are we spending 13K on stern machines? So, this one's just going to be a much more precise. and what I'm feeling about the fall of the empire because I know a lot of you are like Carrie where's your video in regards to Stern's fall of the empire. I didn't do a video on this for multiple reasons which I discuss to my patrons but what I'm feeling about follow the empire is it's a middle of the road meh kind of game. I'm like, "All right, it's it's fine. Not horrible, nothing amazing, but it's a game that's going to speak to a broad audience." I think that's what they were going for is let's give them all the assets for the movies. Let's give them the call outs, uh, art that is sufficient is a word to use. cuz I really like the LE back glass. And let's make the layout where it's going to be, I guess, accessible, approachable, that's the word I want to use that everybody else is using for it. But yeah, that's that's how I feel about it. I'm not excited to play it or anything. I've seen the gameplay footage. The game looks fine. People that are playing it evidently are enjoying it. So, there's that. So, I think if you're definitely a Star Wars fan, it's going to cater to you. Does it speak to me? No. I'll wait till I play it at expo. And when I'm at Expo, I'm pretty sure I'm going to be playing The Walking Dead Remastered because that is going to be releasing next week. And I I think we might be even getting the teaser for it probably by the end of this week, but the game is set to release next week. So, there is that. I didn't sign no NDA, but anyways, let's see here. What you're seeing behind me is the lack of King Kong. Yes, that game is now out of my game room. What's replacing it, Carrie? Something more enjoyable more than likely than King Kong. We'll we'll we'll just say that. And the the thing is in regards to King Kong, not that it's a bad game. If it was the only game that I had in my house, it definitely would be disappointing, though. That's the thing with the game so far. And I know a lot of you are going to want to defend it when it comes to code. Like, oh, it's only 87. It's got all this. It's getting better. Man, I'm sure it will get better when it comes to code. The game shoots great. When you make your shots, that game is butter smooth. A lot that I like about it, but there's also a lot that I kind of don't really like about it after a while. After a while, I just just kind of didn't want to play it. It's set back there and I just didn't want to play it anymore. And if I don't want to play a pinball machine, that speaks subconsciously about the game and how I feel about it. I'm not going to force myself to play a game that I'm not thoroughly enjoying. And that was a game that's like and that's the thing is King Kong was designed I say designed the intention of me getting to King Kong was not to hold on to it. That was always my plan was to change Kong out with another game. But if for whatever reason I felt that King Kong was an amazing game and I didn't want to let it go, then I would find a way to hold on to it. But that wasn't the case for King Kong. And evidently that bolds true for a lot of you out there because not a lot of Dros wanted to buy my game. They either were still trying to get rid of their a lotment or they know that King Kongs are not selling right now for a variety of reasons. But I did have a Dro reach out to me. They're taking care of me. I'll hold back who all's helping me and who that is until the deal is completely done. And by all means, uh, I want to give them major kudos for the conversations and everything that we've had. But we'll cross that bridge when I get to it. Uh, in regards to people are asking me basically what I sold it for. I sold it for what the market is currently asking for it. And also gives the DRO room to make some money cuz that's what you've got to do. You can't just, you know, if I would have sold it to an individual, I probably could have made more money. But nobody's really buying right now. Secondhand market's kind of I'm sure those of you out there that are trying to sell stuff are probably seeing that. But yeah, so it took a big hit. Pretty big hit. I can say that I will not be buying a Sternle LE again. No more. Changes need to be made Stern on your LE. You are oversaturating the market. You are not making a very good offering for the price point. And I think that will be very evident when Spooky drops their next game for $10,000 and what all they're putting inside that game underneath the glass. People are really going to wonder where their money is going when they're looking at what you're asking for your games. You've definitely got to change something, Stern. Something's got to change. You've got to make it more appealing, more rare. Make it to where people want them again. People are not wanting your games, LE at least, cuz they definitely don't hold any value anymore. And I know a lot of you out there that buy the LE don't care about the value. You look at losing $3,500 on an LE like it's nothing or you don't care. Good for you. I don't like losing money. I'm sorry. I'm pretty cheap. I don't like losing money, but it sucks that Yeah. $3,500 is definitely being lost on my King Kong. I thought getting an L1LE would be the safest bet that I wouldn't lose that much money. The demand would be there. Boy, was I wrong. Yeah, you got me once, but you're not going to get me again on this one. I I I am not getting another Stern Stern LE. Not going to happen. especially if you're going to continue to offer what you are offering for the price point. And that's going to become very evident on the lack of offerings that you have for the price point whenever Spooky is about to whip out their giant going to try to keep it PG here, but they've got something coming out here pretty soon that's going to make everybody go, "Oh, and they're only offering how much?" And they've got all these assets. They've got this artwork that looks like this. They've implemented the theme how the toppers like that and the value is going to hold solid more than likely.

7:26

It's going to be interesting. I cannot wait to see the reactions from people on this. But yeah, in regards to losing money, obviously it sucks. But if you would like to one help me out as well as get you something in return, I do have the Ron Kong t-shirt. They will be available at Pinball Expo and they are available on my website. Links in the video description down below. Keith, I did send you a shirt, so I'm looking forward to seeing you wear that maybe at Pinball Expo or at least send me a picture of you wearing it. That'd be great. Next up on the docket is Pinball Legends. For those that are on my Patreon, you're probably getting tired of all the notifications from the releases/reveals of these pinball figurines. I this is the first time actually I'm going to be showing the video footage of them. I've been merely showing pictures, but here are the current figurines that have been revealed. So, these are made of a poly stone resin. Evidently, the materials are very high quality from what I'm told. I haven't got hands on. There are some weight to it. If it helps you with quality, the tales of the Arabian Knights full-size one weighs 7 12 lb. The box materials and everything that it's packaged in looks very high-grade, looks very nice. Then it comes to what all this is. Information is supposed to come out, I want to say this coming Friday. That includes price point and all that jazz. But one information I can tell you at this current point in time, there are two different versions. There is a 16th scale and there is a 112th scale. The 16th is limited to 500 units made and that's going to be the the the height of these things differ between 10 to 12 in tall and the 112th scale I think they are maybe 3 or 4 in smaller but th those will not be limited. The 112th scale is no limited amounts made on that. And the collector's edition or the limited one also has a certificate that goes along with it. So there you have it. Like I said, when it comes to price point, I think you're going to be maybe happy surprised at the point. I think it's going to be it's cheaper than what you're going to expect, especially coming from like Leor doing the the sculpting and everything of these. These are all hand sculpted and hand painted. So, there you go. And the materials are, from what I'm told, not cheap materials. I And the thing is, we've got six coming out this week revealing out. And then at Expo, you're going to see the other six behind that. So, they've already got 12 figurines ready to go. And they're going to do them in series. Like, the first six are series one, then there's series two. You can buy them separately, but I think they're looking into doing some kind of collector's package for those of you that want to collect them all. There will be a cheaper price point for you out there. I don't know what all that is. That's that's that's over my pay grade. I'm merely just informing you about the product. I I think this is definitely going to be interesting to see how this goes because this has never been done before. This is a product that just like we don't know. A lot of people are looking at this like, "Why do I want pin dolls? Why do I want stuff like that in my game room? I I just want games or whatever." But there's a lot of us out there that do things that other people don't find interesting. It would suck if we all liked the same thing. There's people out there that I I didn't realize were really into Warhammers and they're still using toothpicks and painting and airbrushing Warhammer figurines. Adults do this, guys. So, it's not completely far-fetched and crazy to think that there's other adults out there that wouldn't mind having a collection of these. If not a collection, I definitely seen people buying a particular one of a particular game that they really enjoy. But, it's always a question in the air of what is the demand going to be for these things. They don't know and we don't know. The market's going to decide. So, I'm curious to see what the market says about these things. I want to know what your feedback is. My patrons have already kind of given it to me, but leave me in the comments section down below what you think of Pinball Legends. And I don't think I clarified it, but it's Melvin Williams and Rick at Planetary Pinball that is doing this. And it was help from Leor with the sculpting and everything aspect of it. But, uh, yeah. So, I'm going to assume these are going to be available via Planetary Pinball's website. And I think there's even talks about certain distros that may be selling these as well. I think it's just a matter if you're a DRO and you're interested in selling these, then you may want to reach out to Rick and see if you can get on a list. I don't know. Like I said, if you're a DRO and you would like to sell these things, reach out to Rick and see what he can do for you. We got Pinball Expo around the corner. We've got manufacturers bringing like their current games, manufacturers bringing games that a lot of people haven't played yet. So, it's going to be interesting. But, I think one section of the Pinball Expo that's going to be getting a lot of attention is going to be the homebrew section. This is probably going to be one of the busier areas of Pinball Expo. You're going to have your crowds around some of the newer titles, obviously, the new Walking Dead and everything. Maybe some Star Wars, maybe people people that haven't played Harry Potter or Dune. And then you even have Turner Pinball with their Merlin's Arcade. That's going to get some attention. But a lot of people are going to be at the homebrew section because these homebrewers are bringing it, guys. And in particular, Mud Flaps is bringing Big Trouble and Little China. This was announced this week. The only real amount of footage that we got so far is a lot of the film footage. We don't have like any gameplay really. So, we don't really know what all the game is capable of yet. I don't know if there's a future video coming to show that off or they're just like, "Hey, the game's going to be at Expo. Come and play it." But, I do predict there being a hell of a line for it. Which is going to suck because I don't like waiting in line. Maybe I can work out something where I could stay late or get in there early or someone could hold my place in line for me. But either way, game looks pretty interesting. Definitely a theme that I'm curious about. I don't adore it or love it, but it's definitely a theme that somewhat speaks to me. I've definitely seen Big Trouble and Little China a lot more than I've seen Star Wars or Harry Potter, though. Uh, I'm curious to see what all they done underneath the glass. Now, I'm definitely curious to get a little bit of hands-on with Pinball Brothers Predator. We should be getting that game. Multimorphic should have a couple of the portals there. Uh, as far as Spooky, they're going to be bringing their Evil Dead. There's rumor about teasing their next title. I don't know if that's true or not. I'm not lying to you because I really don't know. I I could reach out and find out, but then I wouldn't be able to tell you. So, I kind of like being able to tell you. I don't know. But, uh, let's see here. But, I will say that definitely you should see their next game before the end of the year. That's a given. They have a schedule and then they're going to stick to it. Let's see here. Barrels of Fun. They're going to be showing off Labyrinth and Dune. And from what I've told, they should have a a room that's good for Dune. Basically, to give you a lot of you people out there that have not played the game, a little bit better environment to experience the game. I don't know how big this room is going to be, if it's going to be like a I don't know, but from what I'm told, evidently, they've got a place for Dune that's going to be a better experience. So, I don't know. That could be anything. But yes, I will be at Pinball Expo. I want to say I'm going to be there probably Wednesday through Saturday, maybe. I don't know. Flight's booked and everything. I don't know. We'll figure it out. But, uh, yeah, that's what time frame I should be there. I'll be walking around the show. I will more than likely have a gathering or a meeting at some point with all my patrons. So, there is that. I just don't have a time window exactly. I don't want to overlap a certain seminar that people might be wanting to go to or maybe somebody else is having a gathering. I don't want to have to have a conflicting schedule. So, that is yet to be ironed out. But, uh, yes, Expo next week. Looking forward to all the new games that I have yet to play. And who knows, maybe we have some exciting announcements or news coming between now and then. I can guarantee you that we have some new announcement, new announcements coming. You know, like I said, we got The Walking Dead that's coming. So, yeah, maybe something else. We'll see. So, guys, let me know what you feel about Star Wars. Let me know what you feel about these figurines coming from Planetarian Melvin. Let me know about what you think that's coming to Expo and what might be coming to Expo. Let me know in the comments section down below and I'll see you at the end of the video.